Korean soldier makes bold prank calls to 911 in US

The International Crime Investigation Team from the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency announced on July 1 that Korean police in joint operation with the United Stated police force nabbed and booked without detention Lee (20) for making prank threatening calls from S. Korea to public agencies in the United States including 911 Call Center using a Smartphone application.

Lee’s criminal charge infringes the law regarding obstruction of business.

Details of Lee’s crime have been revealed. On March 26 at about 10:45 P.M., Lee made a series of calls to the 911 Call Center in the state of New Jersey from his home in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province and said “I will shoot down high school students.” His call caused lockdowns in schools in the state.

In another case, Lee called to the 911 Call Center in Warren County in the state of New Jersey for two days, identified himself as a Swedish-American, and said “I am under cover near Hackett High School with an AK rifle, and ready to shoot students.” The United States police, foundered by his call, set up an emergency investigation headquarter on site, locked down eight local schools for four hours, and initiated search and inspection using anti-terrorist arsenals including SWAT team, armored vehicles and choppers.

On April 3 at about 9:40 P.M., Lee called the New York Police Department and threatened a cop saying “I just killed my 10-year-old son and will soon murder you and your family members too.”

Before the crime, Lee, who at the time had a part-time job at a department store in Jeonju, maintained communication with a female high school student in the United States on SNS for English-learning purposes, and became aware of the smartphone application that can forge fake calling number.

Afterwards, Lee’s crime developed from making prank calls to pizza stores in the United States to establishing an online chat room that broadcasted his prank calls in real-time.

Korean police, with help of shared intelligence from the Department of Homeland Security in the United States, discovered that the ongoing prank calls in the United States originate from S. Korea. The police analyzed and traced the calls, and succeeded in nabbing Lee, who now serves military service in Korean army.

“Despite the calls being a seemingly harmless prank, they caused grave consequences upon local United States citizens and police force” said the police. “The investigation at this point focuses on whether he committed more crimes of the same type that target overseas.”